Europarliament’s resolution on Russian election is interference

The legislator asked the EU leadership to ignore resolutions that may be harmful for bilateral relations

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MOSCOW, December 14 (Itar-Tass) —— The European parliament’s resolution urging cancellation of the State Duma election returns us “incorrect” and “gross interference in the affairs of a sovereign state,” newly-elected legislator Leonid Slutsky has told Itar-Tass. In several previous Dumas Slutsky was first deputy chief of the international affairs committee.

The European parliament members have called on the Russian authorities to cancel the parliamentary election returns.

The European legislators argue that there must be new free and fair elections after the registration of all opposition parties. They claim that such a decision must be made accordance with the preliminary conclusions of the OSCE ODIHR and the association Golos (Voice), the demands voiced by thousands of demonstrators and the opinion of the former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev.

“The European Parliament has clearly exceeded its competence in trying to summarize the results of the Duma elections,” Slutsky said. He argues that Russian citizens alone are in the position to decide the future of the country “regardless of anyone’s political recipes.”

“The European parliament, as usual, has demonstrated double standards and hackneyed scenarios. For some reasons it ignores the opinion of the parliamentary opposition, which has decided not to lay down their mandates and to continue the struggle. It relies on preliminary conclusions by biased observers, claims by parties that have not undergone proper registration, and demands by protesters, whom both LDPR leader Zhirinovsky and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov have slammed as “orange leprosy.”

He recalled that the State Duma elections had been monitored by over 600 foreign observers.

“The statement they published did not say a word about whether the elections were unfair or dishonest,” Slutsky said.

The legislator asked the EU leadership to ignore resolutions that may be harmful for bilateral relations, in particular, on the eve of the Russia-UE summit.

“On the agenda there are such important issues as the WTO, the Middle East, Afghanistan, visas and energy. Also, the possibility may be discussed of what Moscow can do to help the euro area emerge from the crisis. This is what is really worth discussing, instead of meddling in somebody else’s business,” Slutsky said.